Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
How long does an Energy Cell last in a vibro weapon? Specifically want to know for a vibrobayonet.
The only thing I could find was regarding the 'special energy cell' for lightsabers that lasts "practically forever". I doubt this has any bearing as it costs 1000cr vs. the 'normal' ones which cost 15cr. Previous/other systems have been listed in terms of 'minutes of use' or 'rounds of use'.
The Star Wars Saga Edition core rule book page 124 does not give a time limit for energy cell use for a vibroblade. I can only assume that, like a lightsaber, it's infinite or up to the GM's discretion. I myself say after 1 month of continuous use the character must change cells, and if used sparingly every 2 months.
Rules as written, there's no specific thing telling you when a Vibro-Blade's cell runs out. So, there's a few options a sneaky DM could employ:
Decide it doesn't matter
You can easily just ignore this. Power cells for vibros fairly inconsequential. You'll need to decide how it compares with what your players like to do. If you're not having fun worrying about it? Don't.
Pick a more general milestone
Instead of specific minutes or rounds (which I feel just adds a ton of annoying minutae to the game), track in number of combats. Say, five to seven. This way, you get a realistic duration for your vibro-blades, and don't have to get too into the reeds on tracking.
Save it for the Worst Possible Moment™
This is probably best combined with one of the options above, but as the DM you can always cause the blade to short out, fault, or run out of battery at the most dramatic moment, and enjoy the resulting chaos. Things like this give you a way to acknowledge the reality of future weapons, and inject a sudden, shocking twist into combat. This trick really only works once, though, so pick a good moment to do it, perhaps when your blade-happy mandalorian is seconds away from revenge...
Finally, we've seen in a few movies for Star Wars that the Bayonets run off the power cell in the gun they're attached to (Look at the green pigs in Jabba's Palace). Thus, unless you're going to pull them off the barrel of a blaster, you shouldn't have to worry too much. I'd have a lot of fun with it if a player said "oh, I pull it off and plug a full-sized power pack into it". Well. More fun with the explosion, but you get what I mean.
